He has been knocking on the door for a while but in the sand dunes of Riola in Italy, Cole McCullough delivered his first ever EMX125 podium and he did it the hard way!
The Fantic rider got a terrible start in race one but came through to third only to crash, drop back to 12th then come all the way back to fourth only to lose a place on the last corner, finishing fifth.
Race two, and an even worse start, but McCullough did a Roczen in the first couple of laps and sped through the field getting himself into second before eventual race winner, Katona, put him back to third but that was enough for the rapid McCullough to have a career high of third overall in one of the most competitive series on the planet.
A delighted McCullough said: “Yeah, the starts weren’t that good yesterday and the day, but the day was probably worse. And then I got into 3rd yesterday actually and then crashed and came back to 4th and then got passed in the last corner for 5th.
“But today the start, again, wasn’t so good. Made my way up to about 4th or 5th by the 2nd or 3rd lap. And then just got into, I was lying in 2nd and Katona passed me. But yeah, finished 3rd. Best result (so far), I’ve had a couple fourths, some sixth’s and now third today.
“But yeah, it was a long last lap! But to do it here in the deep sand, like at home, we have a track similar, so it feels good to do here.”
Fingers crossed, there could be more podiums before the end of the season.
In terms of the championship, McCullough is now eleventh but he’ll want to move up the rankings.
